Or said another way, Latino small businesses are still among the fastest growing segments of the U.S. market with more than 3 million companies and a huge potential of new opportunities.

Former SBA Administrator Hector Barreto is Chair of The Latino Coalition (TLC), an advocacy organization whose agenda is to develop initiatives and partnerships that will enhance overall business, economic and social development of Latinos. TLC is partnering with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to present the 10th annual Small Business Summit in June.

Speaking to VOXXI.com, Barreto explained “We want to motivate and inspire young people so they understand that one of their options is to be their own boss. A lot of young folks are very creative, very innovative, they’re motivated, and they want to do something on their own.”

Business lenders would be smart to recognize this trend and instead of conceding the Latino market to Latino-owned banks, embrace the opportunity by proactively tooling up for the task and embarking intentionally to grow in that market. Meaning? Hiring Latino or Spanish-speaking business developers and directing marketing efforts into the local Latino community.

It’s easy to dismiss these suggestions with assumptions that opportunities only exist in border states such as California, Arizona and Texas, but if you live in Anniston AL, Jersey City, NJ or Evanston, IN, you’d be blind to not acknowledge a steady rise in the Latino population emerging as well.

Note: Translation of the words and sentences in this article were courtesy of Google Translate, which is responsible for grammatical errors and dialect shortcomings. I’m responsible for not having studied Spanish in high school – sorry Mom.

¡Ay, caramba! This article was updated on 5/13/14 at 2:18 p.m. for several translation errors.